The Salento countryside

A walk through the green countryside of Salento will allow you to admire the masterpieces of the architecture of Salento.

The Pajare: rural buildings made with the technique of building dry and with the patient and laborious work of composing a mosaic of interlocking stones arranged to obtain cone-shaped buildings.

The pajare were temporary shelter for families who left their homes in the country in the summer, and moved to the country to care for and guard the crops and livestock that would guarantee the
survival for the following winter.

The interior of the pajara reveals all the skill of the builders. The Cone Ceiling is a joint of stones held together only by the force of gravity: a true masterpiece.

The same technique is used for the construction of dry walls. These, characterizing also the rural landscape of Salento, are the ideal habitat for numerous species of small animals and plants.

Admire these structures a few miles from Holiday Petrachi. TIP: have a walk to Acquarica of Lecce where you will find numerous Pajare and discover also Melendugno Furnieddhu Cranne.

* Furnieddhu is another way to call these structures typically in Salento.